Former head of UCLAs football NIL collective

The former head of UCLA’s football identify, image and likeness collective on Thursday denied any impropriety associated to a report that revealed efforts by the college’s athletic division to funnel NIL donations through his nonprofit charity.

The story printed by the muckraking school football web site foiaball.com confirmed e-mail communications from UCLA athletic division officers directing funds supposed for Bruins for Life, the onetime NIL collective of the college’s football program, through Shelter 37 Inc., a tax-exempt charity that purports to empower home possession and help local youth through a selection of actions.

Donating through Shelter 37 would offer a tax deduction not out there to those giving straight to Bruins for Life — a commonplace observe in the NIL sphere — but it also raised questions about a potential battle of curiosity and the control of funds given James Washington ran Bruins for Life until not too long ago and stays the president of Shelter 37.

The story also questioned Shelter 37’s charitable endeavors and prompt that UCLA athletic division officers inspired the evasion of Internal Revenue Service steering relating to so-called donor-advised funds, directing money to Shelter 37 that couldn’t go to other corporations taking a more conservative method with regard to NIL guidelines.

Emails obtained by foiaball.com through a public data request confirmed practically a half million {dollars} of donations supposed for Bruins for Life going through Shelter 37, with faculty officers requesting that anybody who despatched their money through the latter group to specify that or not it’s earmarked for football NIL.

Washington said there was nothing untoward about an association that was permitted by UCLA and concerned full transparency.

“There’s nothing that’s happening between Shelter 37 and UCLA and Bruins for Life that’s in the closet,” Washington, a former UCLA security who went on to win two Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys, told The Times. “Everything has been discussed, every move, every act that I’ve taken toward the NIL, every step — bookkeeping and everything — has been handled and handed over to UCLA.”

In a assertion, a UCLA athletic division spokesperson said that “UCLA athletics operates with integrity and transparency, in a manner that is consistent with industry best practices. Our development team educates potential donors on a range of giving opportunities, including avenues to support our student-athletes.”

In what Washington described as an unrelated transfer confirmed by an athletic division official, UCLA not too long ago shifted its football NIL operations to new management, permitting Bruins for Life to pivot into an alumni membership for football. Washington said the Bruins for Life web site was quickly inactive as half of that transition and that it could still have an NIL part offering group outreach alternatives for football gamers.

Alongside longtime UCLA donor John Manuck, Washington had spearheaded the fundraising efforts of Bruins for Life when it debuted in October 2024 as the new NIL arm of UCLA football.

“It’s really exciting,” UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond said at the time, “because it’s going to support our football student-athletes in a real positive way.”

The foiaball.com story contended that the Bruins for Life web site acknowledged that it was not a 501(c)(3) group, that means that any donations it accepted weren’t tax deductible. The web site directed those wishing to donate to Shelter 37, a 501(c)(3) group that said it might obtain tax-deductible contributions.

The story reported that Shelter 37’s 2024 IRS 990 tax type, printed by ProPublica, confirmed a income leap to $4.8 million in 2024, up from $800,000 the earlier 12 months. The doc acknowledged that $3.6 million had been raised for the Bruins for Life NIL program but only $200 for scholarships for at-risk youth.

Washington said that latter quantity was deceptive because Shelter 37 was not a scholarship-based group, even though it assisted at-risk kids through a selection of group companies. The Times reviewed one Shelter 37 tax doc reporting practically a mixed seven figures spent on scholarships, education schemes and housing.

“This is when people are not fact-checking,” Washington said, “and they’re just putting stuff out there and they’re just trying to make the story bigger than what it needs to be.”

Over the years, Washington said, Shelter 37 has held many community-based occasions such as turkey drives, football camps for inner-city youngsters and “I’m going to college” days in which the group paid for buses to transport college students to football video games at the Rose Bowl.

The foiaball.com story contended that Shelter 37 was used as a workaround for donor-advised funds that had been in limbo. One UCLA athletic division worker, informed of a denial of one donor-advised fund, forwarded the message to other inner fundraisers, along with a message saying, “Just as an FYI. Here is info for Shelter 37 for DAF gifts.”

A new home for donor-advised funds was needed after another NIL firm, Blue Print Sports, ceased its charitable operations in the wake of the IRS advice, its legal counsel citing “no path forward.” According to the paperwork reviewed by foiaball.com, a UCLA athletic division official despatched an e-mail to Washington not long after the IRS steering was issued, informing him of a $15,000 donation through Bank of America that must be directed to Bruins for Life.

Washington said there was nothing unlawful about accepting donor-advised funds and that every transfer made by his organizations was within the foundations.

“Any dollar that was given to me, there’s a track record and we have a communication document that shows what came out and how it was received,” Washington said. “They [UCLA athletic officials] know exactly what came into accounts, they know exactly what came out because everything was disclosed and we were communicating and I was acting as a vessel during the time of the Wild, Wild West to try to help UCLA’s football program succeed in this new era of what we call the NIL.”